Review - S 2792 Introduced – FY 2022 NDAA

Earlier this week, Sen Reed (D,RI) introduced S 2792, the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) for Fiscal Year 2022. This is the version of the NDAA reported by the Senate Armed Forces Committee that will probably be substituted for the House language of HR 4350 when it is considered in the Senate. As with the House bill, S 2792 has a Title on cyber operations, including a report on DOD support for CISA. It also includes authorization language for a civilian cybersecurity reserve pilot and a brief discussion about technical debt.

As I mentioned above, when the Senate begins consideration of HR 4350, the version of the NDAA that passed this week in the House, there is typically an amendment in the form of a substitute that is offered for the Senate’s consideration. This bill will form the base for that amendment. There will be a vigorous floor amendment process, though it will not include nearly as many amendments as did the House debate.

Once the Senate passes that amended version, it will go back to the House for consideration of the new language. I would expect that the House will ‘insist’ on its version and the bill will then go to conference to work out the compromise version that will get to the President for signature. I expect that most of the House cybersecurity amendments will remain in that version.

For more details about the cybersecurity provisions of the bill, see my article at CFSN Detailed Analysis - https://patrickcoyle.substack.com/p/s-2792-introduced - subscription required.